by Logan Jacobs
“Sure,” Jemma noted as she released me with one hand, grabbed the weapon, and handed it down to me. “But it doesn’t seem to be doing much good.”
“That’s where Tirian comes in,” I explained as I took an arrow in my free hand. “Remember how I told you not to use your fire on this thing? Well… I want you to use your fire on this thing. Aim straight between his eyes, and blast as hard as you can.”
You’re currently in my mouth, the silver dragon chuckled. If I want to spit fire, I’ll have to let you go, and I don’t think my bondmate can hold you if I do that.
“Then let me go,” I continued. “Charge up your breath and then, the second before you’re ready to release, toss me up into the air.”
“I’m not sure I see where you’re going with this,” Jemma admitted, and her voice sounded worried and doubtful.
“Just trust me on this one,” I reassured the beautiful deer woman. “Now, are we ready?”
Ready, Tirian announced, and then I felt a soft heat against my back.
I really hoped this worked. If not, I could end up a charred corpse from Tirian’s haphazard flame or splattered against the surface of the ocean or even inside the belly of the beast.
Still, all I could do was trust my friends and hope for the best. And aim well.
I really, really needed to make sure my aim was true.
My heart hammered in my chest as I placed the arrow to the string and pulled it slightly taut. This was all going to be over in a few seconds, so I couldn’t afford to waste a single moment fiddling around with my weapon.
I took a deep breath as we approached the Huitar, and my entire back was now sweating from the intense heat radiating from Tirian’s mouth.
Here we go, the dragon warned.
I took a second deep breath, and then released as Tirian flipped his head back and tossed me into the air.
At the same time, the silver dragon unleashed a blast of red-hot fire directly between the eyes of the octopus creature. The blast bored into his skin like a drill moving through ore, and I knew this was my one shot.
So, I hauled back my arrow, took aim, and released it the very second that Tirian’s flame fizzled out.
The projectile swished through the air and disappeared inside of the fresh crater in the huitar’s head, and then I heard a wet schlock as it hit its mark.
Bullseye. With the help of my dragon companion, I just sent an arrow straight into the fucker’s brain.
I watched as the huitar let out a soft cry of pain, and then his already dead eyes went even deader. His tentacles all went limp, and his body rolled back into the sea and floated there lifelessly.
The beast was dead.
However, I couldn’t savor my victory for too long. I was still plummeting toward the ocean below, and I didn’t have the luxury of wings to slow my descent.
“Tirian?” I called out nervously.
On it! the little dragon’s voice responded, and a wave of relief washed over me.
Then the panic set back in when I realized just how fast I was falling. The ocean surface was now only a few dozen feet below me, and I knew if I wasn’t caught soon, I was going to be swimming with some thrashing tentacles like a bad hentai.
That’s when I felt the jaws of the dragon grab my shirt once more.
Tirian slowed my fall slightly, but my momentum was too much for the little guy. My body halted for a second before all three of us fell down and smashed into the water with a loud splash.
“Holy shit!” I gasped as I broke through the surface of the briny water. “Nice save, guys.”
Help! Tirian cried. I can’t swim!
“You can fly, you know,” Jemma chuckled as she treaded water and pulled her bondmate’s head above the water.
Tirian quirked his head to the side and pondered her words. Then he flapped his wings and floated up a few feet above the tide.
Huh, he mused as he looked down at us.
“Great job, Tirian.” I turned my body around in the water and saw my friends were all accounted for. Mira was already back in our rowboat, and she went around collecting the rest of the crew that had fallen overboard.
Meanwhile, back on the beach, I could see George and Nixie had gotten all of the unconscious warriors back to safety. The huitar’s body was still twitching sporadically, but there was no doubt in my mind it was down for the count.
Finally, I took a deep breath.
We did it.
Somehow, we’d just killed a monster quadruple our size.
Now, we could finish our job uninterrupted and see what kinds of goodies laid in the shipwreck below.
Chapter Two
Not long after we’d turned the giant hand-bearing octopus into a corpse, Mira and the rest of my small crew rowed over and picked Jemma and me out of the water. A lot of the gore and viscera had been washed off by the briny sea water, but I could still smell the faint scent of the creature’s innards as I climbed back into the boat.
We set off back after the sunken cannons and spent another two hours trying to find anything we could salvage. When all was said and done, we were able to recover five cannons in total, as well as a few other trinkets like a few pots and pans, some silverware, and even the now-rusted old frame of Captain Carnog’s bed.
“Talk about a haul.” Mira whistled as we headed back to the shore for the day. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen this much iron in my life.”
“I want to know where the orcs are finding all of it,” Malak pondered aloud. “If the Coonag people had access to this sort of material, our weapons would be unbreakable.”
“Not just your weapons, either,” I reminded the raccoon woman with the shaved head. “If we could get our hands on enough of the stuff, we could even make armor that would protect us from our enemies’ blades.”
Malak’s amber eyes lit up at the possibility, as did Nadir’s.
“We would be unstoppable!” Nadir cooed with a savage grin. “The Coonag women could tear through an entire army without even taking a single wound.”
“If it’s so easy, then why don’t the orcs do it?” Jemma wondered as she cocked her head to the side. “Shouldn’t they all be running around with iron clothes?”
The auburn-haired beauty made a good point. The orcs we fought were always armed to the gills with iron weapons and tools, yet they never fought in any sort of armor.
“That could mean a couple of things,” I explained to the girls in the boat. “Either, one, they only have access to a limited supply of iron ore, so they focus on making things they think are the most useful. Or two, there’s something in their culture that looks down on people who wear armor, so none of them do it. Or three, which in my opinion is probably the most unlikely, is that they just don’t know how to make armor out of the iron they have.”
“But how do you even get this ‘iron ore?’” Nadir demanded. “Does it grow on a tree?”
“Does it wash up on the beach?” Mira prodded. “Like our seaglass?
“Neither.” I shook my head. “The raw material has to be mined out from deep under the ground. Then it gets tossed into a large blast furnace, and it comes out the other end as usable iron.”
“That sounds very complicated,” the dark-haired Theora mused.
“It is,” I agreed, “which is part of what makes me think it’s option number one or number two. If the orcs are intelligent enough to build a freaking blast furnace, there’s no way they wouldn’t know how to turn iron into armor. They probably just don’t have enough, or they don’t really want to make it in the first place.”
“The joke’s on them, then,” Mira chuckled. “When they show up on our island and see we’re all wearing iron clothes, they’ll probably swallow their own tongues.”
“I wouldn’t get ahead of ourselves,” I sighed. “Iron ore is usually found deep inside of the earth. And if the origins of these islands are anything like the ones where I’m from, I doubt they’ve been around long enough to produce a lot of the stuff
.”
“Then it’s even stranger that the orcs have it,” Malak wondered. “Don’t they live on an island, too?”
“I have no fucking idea,” I admitted. “There’s a giant island on the map that looks like prime real estate for an orc home base, but I’m not sure if that’s the case.”
“If islands don’t bear a lot of iron, and the orcs have lots of iron…” Jemma mused, “where do they live?”
“Could be the mainland of this world,” I thought aloud. “Wherever the hell that may be.”
The boat was completely silent, and I noticed all the women inside were looking at me with raised eyebrows and pursed lips. They were confused beyond belief.
“What type of an island is a ‘mainland?’” Mira questioned.
“It’s not,” I tried to explain. “The mainland is a giant swatch of land that stretches on for thousands of thousands of miles at a time between its borders with the ocean. You can’t easily cross them without the modern forms of travel that were common in my world, like planes and cars.”
The women looked at each other and frowned.
“So… it’s like a giant island?” Mira tried again.
“No,” I sighed. “It’s about a thousand times bigger than an island. They call it a ‘continent’ where I’m from.”
“But, you said it is surrounded by the sea, right?” Theora spoke up with a pout. “Doesn’t that make it an island?”
“Well, yeah,” I continued, “it’s surrounded by the sea, but a human or animal could live their whole life without ever seeing it. Here on your islands, we can literally go from one shore to the other in just a day or two. You definitely can’t do that on the mainland. It might take half a year to walk from one side to the other.”
“That sounds dreadful.” Mira gagged. “Why would anyone not want to live by the ocean? It’s Oshun’s blessing.”
I briefly considered explaining the plethora of reasons why beach life wasn’t ideal. There were the constant tropical storms and hurricanes, the skyrocketing property prices, the fact that amenities were more difficult to get… but I knew there was no way they would understand any of that, so I didn’t even start.
Besides, I was in total agreement with them on this one. That’s why I had joined the Coast Guard in the first place, so I could live a life out on the sea, free to travel the deep blue ocean at my own pace and see all sorts of exotic locations I wouldn’t have if I’d been in the Army or Air Force. Sure, the Navy could have offered me similar perks, but I wanted to stick closer to home. My sister was always needing my help, and I couldn’t really fix her leaky faucets or babysit her children if I was away in the South China Sea.
“It really is,” I agreed as I surveyed my surroundings. “Oshun has blessed all of us with this beautiful blue sea, and I intend to keep using it. Believe me, even if we find the mainland at some point, I’ll never, ever want to stick around with those landlubbers.”
“Landlubbers,” Mira snorted. “I like that almost as much as fuckers of mothers.”
“Happy to teach you a new word,” I laughed.
We floated our rowboats back to the shore, secured them on the sand banks, and hopped out onto our island paradise. Then we got to work trying to organize our newfound treasures.
I already had a plan in place. The Coonag women would work alongside the dragon kin and the actual dragons to position the retrieved cannons in our newest ship, since the schooner we’d stolen from the orcs on the isle of the sleeping dragons was completely unarmed.
It was built for speed rather than combat, but I fully intended to change that. If we could get the cannons installed into the schooner, it would create a vessel that would be the best of both worlds. It would not only be able to outrun the bigger orc ships like a brig or a barque, but it would also be able to weave in and out of those sorts of vessels. We could strike swiftly, damage our opponents’ ship, and then quickly get out of the way before they had a chance to fire back.
Now, making the gunpowder that would allow them to shoot was another thing, but right now I just wanted to take things one step at a time.
While the Coonag and dragonkin women were preoccupied with the cannons, the deer-women would start to carry the rest of the iron trinkets back to the palace so they could be dispersed appropriately.
However, my work plans were instantly put on hold the second I set foot on shore. Nerissa came running down from the other side of the wall, and she was flanked on both sides by the golden-scaled twin warriors who acted as her guard. The queen threw her arms around me tightly when she got close, and then she rested her head on my shoulder and sobbed.
“I-I thought you were going to die out there,” my queen cried. “That was the biggest huitar I’d ever seen, a-and when it threw you across the ocean, I--”
“Don’t worry, my love,” I tried to calm Nerissa down by running my hands through her braided silver hair in soft, stroking motions. “I had the situation entirely under control. The ugly behemoth didn’t stand a chance against our combined forces.”
“It was still scary,” the normally calm queen sniffled, and I guessed this was another side effect of her pregnancy. “Even though I knew you would be victorious, it was hard to watch.”
“Then next time, don’t watch.” I winked, but that wasn’t the answer Nerissa wanted to hear.
“It would probably be better for my sanity,” Nerissa grumbled as her aquamarine eyes narrowed. “What kind of a haul did you bring back from the depths, my king?”
I explained to the woman everything we had acquired from the sunken orc vessels, and the entire time I spoke, Nerissa looked at me longingly and continuously nodded her head like she was in a dream-like state.
“Is that enough to satisfy our queen?” I joked as I ran my hand across her delicate face.
“Oh, you’ve satisfied me with much less than that,” the pearl-scaled woman cooed. “But yes, it is quite a good variety. Though I’m not sure if it was worth it, given the heart attack I almost just had.”
“Fair enough.” I shrugged and stepped away from my love. “But you can’t really go back and change the past. What’s done is done, and we now have the spoils of our victory to show for it!”
I gave Nerissa a tender kiss on the forehead before I turned away and headed back toward the rest of the group.
“I’ll see you back at the castle,” the dragonkin queen giggled, and I shot her a sly wink over my shoulder.
Then I found the rest of my crew and began to give them their marching orders.
“First thing’s first,” I said as I pointed over to the groggy crewmembers of the boat that had been capsized. “We need to get all of them to Talise and Anora right away. I don’t think they’re too badly hurt, but I don’t want to take any chances. All of the other dragonkin and Coonag women, I’m asking you guys to install the cannons onto our schooner. The water dragons will help you get them out there, but it’s going to require a bit of precision and a whole lot of teamwork to make it happen.”
“Right away, Draco Rex,” Mira said with a salute.
“Everybody else, start taking the iron trinkets back to the palace,” I continued. “Cookware goes to the kitchen, weapons go to the armory… You should know the drill by now. Anyways, we should get started right away.”
I went to take a step forward, but Malak stepped forward and placed her hand firmly against my chest.
“Oh, no.” The gray-haired raccoon woman shook her head. “You’re not going to lift a finger.”
“Excuse me?” I was completely taken aback. “Of course, I will. I’m the one who wanted you to do all this stuff, and I’m not going to make you do it alone.”
“We aren’t going to do it alone,” Jemma reassured me. “We have dozens of dragonkin and Coonag along to help, as well as all three of our dragons. You deserve to take a small break, Ben.”
“Also, you’re covered in octopus guts,” Theora added. “You need to go back to the palace and wash up before you do anythi
ng else.”
“Are you sure?” I asked as I furrowed my brow. “I’m kinda gonna feel like a lazy ass if I make you guys do all this stuff while I’m taking a shower.”
“Don’t worry about it, Ben,” Mira reassured me. “You’ve fought hard, and the literal spoils of your victory are quite visible on your body. Now, go and wash yourself off before the spoils start to smell spoiled.”
I raised my arm, took a whiff, and realized she was right. I was still covered from head to toe in huitar guts, and they were already starting to get ripe out in the hot island sun. If the smell got even worse, I didn’t think anyone would want to be within a hundred feet of me, let alone crammed into tight quarters on a ship with poor ventilation.
“Alright, fine,” I finally conceded. “But I’m going to take a shit-ton of iron goods back with me so I don’t feel completely useless.”
I took a quick dip in the ocean to get the worst of the guts off me, and then I wandered over to the trinkets that had been laid out on the shore and inspected them carefully. Obviously, if I wanted to take a bunch of the stuff back with me, I couldn’t just pick them up haphazardly and carry them in my arms. I needed some sort of a bag…
That’s when the idea struck me. My shirt. All I needed was a strong stick, and I could tie it off in a hobo-style knapsack and then lug multiple iron trinkets back to the castle.
So, I ran over to the nearby tree line and scanned the ground until I came across a stick about the diameter of my arm. Next, I pulled out my pink-stone dagger and carved two inch-long notches into each side. Then I sheathed my weapon, took the stick in both hands, and hauled it back over to the spot where the iron goods were laid out. Finally, I set it down on the sand, reached down, and tugged my soiled shirt off my body.
Even though I was facing the opposite direction, I felt the eyes of every woman behind me ogling my naked torso as I bent down and started to place items into its center. They wanted me, and not just because of my ripped body. No… These women wanted me because I was their leader. Their king. But, even more importantly, they wanted me because they knew my seed was strong, and I could help them repopulate their dwindling community.